Total Pageviews

Friday, April 12, 2013

Dog Food Duck

by Sheila Connolly

This recipe
was inspired by a can of dog food.
Really.

Lila and Dexter

I have two
cats, four-year-old siblings. They have been eating canned Friskies since they
arrived at our house, as well as dry food.
As cats are wont to do, recently they decided they didn't like Friskies,
so we started trying other brands.

Obviously
it had been a few years since we looked at pet food, having been accustomed to
grabbing the same cans from the same place on the shelf at the market every
week. Things have changed, but I'm not sure
it's for the better. What struck me most was that manufacturers have started putting vegetables in their
cat food. Uh, aren't cats carnivores? Before you start yelling at me, I know that
cats need certain elements in their diet that meat alone will not provide. But I don't think the cats need peas,
carrots, spinach, "garden greens," barley, wild rice, etc. Can you say "cheap" and
"filler"?

Surprise: the elegant descriptions and pretty pictures
on the cans are aimed straight at the pet owners. But there's the twist: the descriptions sound darned good. Yes, they
made me hungry, never mind the cats.
And I must admit, I was particularly drawn to one kind of dog food (okay, the
other side of the aisle): duck with sweet
potatoes.

No, I did
not bring home a can and sample it, but I thought that it sounded like a great
pairing. I like duck, and since my
market stocks frozen duck parts (the back end is about half the price of the
front end), I try to keep some in the freezer for quick but elegant meals. So I went looking for a recipe—and found that
there aren't many for duck and sweet potatoes.
I found all of two, both from the UK.
What I present here is a conflation of those, but it's quick, easy and
tasty.

DUCK WITH
SWEET POTATOES

The Duck:

Ingredients

2 duck legs

1/4 cup soy
sauce

1/4 cup honey

Freshly
ground black pepper

1 cup red
wine

4 sprigs
fresh thyme, chopped (or at least stripped from the stems)

Preheat the
oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat an
oven-proof cast iron frying pan and sear the duck legs, skin side down, over
medium heat for 4-5 minutes, until the fat starts to run.

Turn the
duck pieces over and sear the other side, then remove from the pan. Pour off and save the fat, if any. (I happened to have some cipollini onions on hand, so I browned them a bit before the next step.) Add the soy sauce and honey and deglaze the
pan, scraping up any bits. Return the
duck pieces (and the onions, if you have them) to the pan and sprinkle with pepper and coat with the soy sauce-honey
mix. Place the pan in the oven and roast
for about 20-30 minutes.

When the
duck is cooked, remove it from the pan and keep warm. Put the pan on the stovetop and add the red
wine, once again scraping the pan.
Simmer until the liquid is reduced by half (and all the alcohol has boiled off--you can tell by smelling the steam rising). Add the thyme and stir.

The Sweet
Potatoes:

Ingredients

1 large
sweet potato, peeled and coarsely grated

2 sprigs
fresh thyme

Salt and
freshly ground black pepper

Duck fat
(either from the cooking above, or additional)

Place the
grated sweet potato in a bowl and mix well with the fresh thyme, then season
with salt and pepper.

In a small
frying pan over medium-high heat, heat the duck fat, then add the grated potato
mixture and press down to flatten. Fry
for 5-7 minutes on each side, until the potato is cooked and the outside is crisp. (If this sounds like too much work, just mash the potatoes, but don't forget the thyme. No need to add butter--the sauce will provide richness.)

When you
are ready to serve, place the duck pieces and potatoes on a plate and pour the sauce over
them. And to think it all started with dog food.

What a pretty dish Sheila! I haven't had duck in years--probably since restaurants started serving it rare...but I used to request it for my birthday when I was growing up. I love your idea for sweet potatoes!

What a beautiful plate of food!!! I've never looked in the freezer section for duck before. I have cooked duck breast when I could find it; will have to try duck legs. We don't have a kitty, but the wet food for our dogs sounds more and more like gourmet eating!!!! Thanks for the recipe idea.

As to cat food fillers--the real problem is grains that get added. The veggies might approximate what their kill would have eaten. (OK, they might have eaten grains, too, but not anywhere near the % in the pet foods)This sounds delicious. Great idea for the handling of the sweet potato.

Hah! The reason cat and dog food labels make you hungry is they're geared to *you*! Your cat or dog might not eat the food, but the manufacturers know that you're the one buying it, so it better make you salivate!

I love your duck dish. We had duck for Easter because we hadn't had it in so long, and it was delicious. I rarely find it at all, and I never see just the legs or just breasts. How clever of you to grate the sweet potato. Now, if I could just find duck legs.

I, too, have read my cat food labels and though...yes, doesn't sound half bad! Great origin story on this recipe, Sheila, and I like the pairing of duck and sweet potato. Looking forward to trying this, thanks, and have a great weekend.